Sherlock

Sherlock strikes a perfect--and delicious--balance among comedy, pathos, murder, and mystery.

The fun is in the snappy dialogue and the impeccable actors delivering it.

Each week, the series takes on a Holmes classic, updates it, turns it on its ear and leaves you breathless.

This Holmes update's second season continues to be both clever and classic.

Three scintillating new Sherlock brain-teasers.

This is TV pleasure at its most intense, without even a shade of guilt.

Intricate plots (many updated versions of old favorites), fast pacing and smart, witty writing make Sherlock one of the most dazzling confections on TV.

The beauty of this series is that it's so entertaining and so well-executed.

Sherlock is an electric marriage of great writing with great performances.

The new season pops with all the visual energy of the first. [4 May 2012, p.67]

Sherlock is a wonderful series. Just thinking about it makes me smile.

Sherlock is an elegant updating of Conan Doyle's stories, not an overhaul.

Sherlock weds the old and new in much the way Holmes solves his cases--making a complicated process look almost effortless.

It's no mean feat, either, to follow three highly entertaining reinventions of stories involving one of literature's most adapted characters with three more even better than the first. But it must not be impossible, because Sherlock has done it.

Sherlock, which impresses again in the three-episode season that returns on PBS.

Stick with it, and this Sherlock proves to be a fun and exhilarating TV experience.

Ultimately, Sherlock doesn't play fair, but the game is so enjoyable, you'll be happy you joined in.

Most of the time Sherlock's cheeky sense of humor makes this version of the character a delight.

Sometimes this focus on technology feels a bit heavy-handed, but in general this is a series that seems to be growing more assured as it goes along.

The case [A Scandal in Belgravia] is much more complicated than that [photos involving a member of the British family] of course, so much more that it, as with the episodes that follow, occasionally threatens to collapse under its own writhing weight. Fortunately, the thrill of Sherlock Holmes was never so much plot as character.

This year, once again, Benedict Cumberbatch's modern-day Holmes and his intrepid sidekick Dr. John Watson (Martin Freeman) provide breathtaking non-stop exhilaration.

This season's three installments--"Scandal in Bohemia" is followed by a scary "The Hounds of Baskerville" and "The Reichenbach Fall" in which nemesis Moriarty (Andrew Scott) returns--make a pleasingly diverse set.